I was just about to get to work when a friend called and said to meet him in the park for a picnic. So off we went to meet him and his son. My friend, a Steinway-Street restaurant owner, is a well traveled man. And his favorite place in the world? Astoria.

"It is heaven," he said. "Where else do you find the whole world in a few blocks? And everybody getting along."

He may have a point.

We got left-wing art:

Right-wing art:

And then in the park, a man approached looking suspiciously like Buzz Lightyear on a bike.

Turns out the man was carrying a plane. A small plane, but one that indeed flies. A model plane? Well, yes, but cooler. FPV-flying, I learned, means first-person-view flying. There's a camera on front and he puts on goggles and flies from the plane's perspective.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I hate honking cars. Probably more than most people. I mean, have you thrown eggs at honking cars? And that's only after getting pissed off, putting on pants, leaving my house, and talking to the offending driver. And they still honk?! Usually, when the eggs flew, they were honking at the garbage trucks. That's a long time to be honking! (I haven't chucked an egg ever since I moved to a quieter block).

I've thought about solutions: what if you only gave drivers three honks per ride? Or fixed horns so you have to be moving? But all these could endanger safety at some point. And they involve complicated electronic tinkering.

I was just going through a Transportation Alternatives email discussion and came across this brilliant idea (I'd be happy to give credit, but don't want to without permission):

Make car horns punishingly loud inside cars as well as outside. That way people will still use them for safety but not for mere aggression.

Now why didn't I think of that? So simple. So brilliant. And it would be so effective. If you're willing to listen to your own horn, lay on it. In the meantime, stop thinking about only yourself, you selfish self-obsessed driving schmuck! Now how can we make it happen?

Friday, August 20, 2010

I love it. It's really the perfect hub for a simple tooling-around-the-city bike. The only problem with mine is that it is four pounds. I assume the new version is much lighter.

The way it works is that every time you back-peddle it switches between low and high. And it has a coaster brake. You can switch gears without braking but you cannot brake without shifting. It kind of sounds like a pain in the ass, but it's not.

Why is this this good? First of all because two-speeds is perfect for 80 percent of your biking needs. Second, basically I use the low gear for starting (sometimes) and for going uphill. I use the higher gear for everything else. And how many other two speed bikes do you know? This gear has no cables, no handles, no derailleur, nothing external, no nothing that needs maintenance or can break. It's the perfect city hub.

Monday, August 09, 2010

The generally unremarkable Indian (or Bangladeshi or Pakistani) Bodega on 31st Street just north of the 30 Ave Subway Stop (east side of street) -- which does, finally sell beer -- has some of the ab-so-lute-ly most fucking hot peppers in the world on sale. They're laid out on a Hindi newspaper by the register. Two for a dollar. "They better be hot," said, I, with attitude. My fucking God! I can eat the hottest hot pepper (please don't doubt me on that). And I bit the teeniest little tip of one of these. They are fucking HOT!

Buy them while you can.

[Update: The crack research staff here at Astoria Bike has identified this pepper as a Bhut Jolokia.]

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

The DOT has confirmed that there will be no bike lanes above 29thStreet on Hoyt/Astoria Blvd. The proposed bike lanes in the AstoriaTriangle Redesign were eliminated due to CB1 opposition.

However, given this change, the DOT has decided to widen the parking laneswhere the bike lanes were supposed to be, so as to give cyclists more roomon the shoulder between parked cars and moving vehicles.

The bike lanes from 29th street to Shore Blvd on Hoyt South, and from 29th Street to Astoria Park, and from Hoyt to 20th Ave along 21st street have all been kept and will be painted this summer. I believe some portions have already been painted.